LISA DESJARDINS: In our relatively young country, it's one of the oldest institutions we have.

The U.S.

Postal Service turns 250 today.

The agency is deeply intertwined with this nation's history and has been critical to its growth.

But with annual net losses nearing $10 billion, this time of celebration is also one of concern.

I went to the National Postal museum in Washington, D.C. to ask how regular Americans see what many call the post office.

MAGGIE ADKINS: Everything's now on the phone and you're sending texts and messages.

But, like being able to get like a letter in the mail and be like, yeah, I got a letter.

It's the best.

So I hope that the post office days.

REGINALD DIXON: I think it's critical because there are so many places in America that they're more remote and your commercial carriers can't really reach those places.

BARRY DILGARD: I don't want everything to be coming to me electronically.

Sometimes you want paper, you want something tangible.

SAMANTHA KAUFMANN: I guess it's losing money, but I would say it's still worth it because it's always there for you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hansi Lo Wang is a correspondent for NPR and covers the U.S. postal Service.

Hansi, let me start with the big birthday question here.

How does the Postal Service fit in the way this country sees itself?

HANSI LO WANG, NPR: Well, the U.S.

Postal Service plays a role in the daily lives of so many people.

And it has been the case going back to 250 years ago, before the founding of this country, when the Second Continental Congress set up Benjamin Franklin as a first postmaster general.

And you had horseback riders delivering mail through the 13 colonies.

And now all the way today, the U.S.

Postal Service on foot, by truck, plane, boat, sometimes by mule, all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

And it's six days a week of service of letters, mails, bills, medication packages that so many folks rely on through deliveries from a letter carrier or their mail carrier.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, the Postal Service is not going away, as you're saying.

By law, it must deliver mail six days a week under current law.

But the future's not here.

They operate almost entirely off of their own revenue, not taxpayer dollars.

But can you help us understand the fiscal challenge here?

HANSI LO WANG: Two main things to keep in mind is that first, the mail value, the amount of mail in the system, has been on the decline for about two decades since 2006.

And that's a really, really disruptive trend to a Postal Service that, like you said, generally receives material, no tax dollars to keep it running and relies on stamp sales and service fees.

The other main thing to really keep in mind, kind of really in the weeds.

But a really key part of why, if you were to look at the financial books of the Postal Service, why you see these losses, is that Congress passed really unique legal requirements for the Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits, health benefits for retired postal workers.

So that has been really saddling the finances of a postal Service that has also been seeing a changing United States with different ways of communicating.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, the current Postmaster General has said he just in the last week he does not want to privatize.

He wants to keep this as an independent agency.

But President Trump, we know in the past and in his current presidency has indicated he may be interested in privatization or somehow taking over the Postal Service into another agency.

The does he have the power to do that potentially?

HANSI LO WANG: By law, the president does not have the power to privatize, to take over what Congress set up to be an independent federal agency.

It is part of the executive branch, but it is run by a board of governors.

Those governors are appointed, nominated by the president, but they have to be confirmed by the Senate.

But ultimately those governors are the ones who pick the Postmaster General who really helped guide the direction of the Postal Service according to federal law and a lot of other requirements.

And so while the all the talk coming from the Trump administration about potentially looking into privatizing or folding it into the Commerce Department, that's been another idea that's been floated.

Those would run into legal challenges.

LISA DESJARDINS: Can you help us understand the stakes then for this debate over the future of the Postal Service is able to stay as it is, or if it does need significant change?

HANSI LO WANG: You know, in the age of the Internet, it can be really easy to take the Postal Service for granted, not even think about it.

But there are so many people in the country, across the country, especially in rural communities, that depend on the Postal Service for their medication, to mail, to receive voting ballots, to receive payments.

This is an infrastructure that the country still relies on, that the economy still relies on to send packages as well.

It reaches every address in the country.

And so the stakes are very high when you're talking about potentially dismantling it or changing it in any dramatic ways.

So many people, so many parts of the country rely on it.

But again, it is running into these challenges at a time when the country, how it communicates is so different from when the Postal Service got started.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hansi Lo Wang, always illuminating talking with you.

Thank you.

HANSI LO WANG: You're welcome.